


Love Languages

by westernsunset



Category: Emelan - Tamora Pierce
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-24
Updated: 2018-12-24
Packaged: 2019-09-25 19:42:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,106
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17127539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/westernsunset/pseuds/westernsunset
Summary: The Circle celebrates Longnight





	Love Languages

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lisafer](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lisafer/gifts).



Sandry fussed again with the refreshments in the drawing room. The cooks had already gently ushered her out of the kitchen because she wouldn’t stop checking in pots and making sure everything was just so. She tried to get herself to stop worrying but she couldn’t.

It was their first Longnight celebration together since they’d all come back to Emelan. They had spent so many years apart, or together but away from their home, Sandry couldn’t barely remember their last Longnight together in Discipline cottage. That meant there was a lot riding on this, and she wanted everything to go perfectly.

The pressure had lessened since they’d come back from Namorn, reforged their bond. They spoke mind-to-mind again sometimes, but now that they were older, the silences between were longer than the chatter. They still had things they felt they couldn’t tell others, more secrets than before, and they had more separate lives. But they were a family. And families spent Longnight together, so Briar and Tris and Daja were all coming to the Duke’s citadel.

Tris showed up first. She’d moved out of Daja’s house, grumbling about how all the noise made it hard for her to focus. Instead, she’d rented a fourth floor room from one of the boarding houses in town. Sandry hadn’t understood why Tris would want to move from Daja’s house, where there was only the noise of two people, to a boarding house with over twenty rooms. But Tris had said something about privacy, anonymity, and being useful, so Sandry had dropped it.

“Happy Longnight!” Sandry said, wrapping her prickly friend in a hug.

“Happy Longnight to you too,” Tris said. “I brought gifts.” She put three neatly wrapped packages on the drawing room table, without ceremony.

“Oh, I have mine as well, I’ll bring them down.” Sandry had worried no one else would bring gifts, so she’d stashed hers up in her room. But since Tris brought something, Sandry felt less nervous about giving presents. She didn’t ever want her friends to think she was giving them charity, but she so loved making things for them, and seeing their faces light up when they opened it. To her, it wasn’t charity, it was another expression of her love.

By the time she came down with her gifts, Daja and Briar were in the front room. Sandry came down in the middle of Briar poking Tris, causing her to swat him, causing him to almost drop a gift, which Daja caught.

“Honestly, Briar! Can’t we go ten minutes without you messing things up?” Tris said, cheeks flushed. 

Sandry smiled. “He wouldn’t be Briar if he didn’t mess things up sometimes.” What Sandry didn’t say was that Briar showed his love by poking and prodding at his sisters. She also noticed that Daja and Briar had put gifts down on the table too.

“Dinner is almost ready,” Sandry said. “But we can have snacks or—”

“Presents.” Briar said.

“Or we could open gifts,” Sandry smiled.

“Open mine first,” Briar said. “I mean, if you want.”

Daja hid a small smile and the corner of Tris’s mouth turned up. It was sweet to see Briar so excited about his gifts. He put a package in each of the girl’s laps. 

“Well go on!” He urged.

The girls tore into the paper. Briar had taken glass bowls and created miniature gardens, a unique one for each of them.

“You barely have to water them,” he was saying. “And you shouldn’t need to prune them either, but if you ever see them growing new buds, you can let me know and I’ll fix them. I tried to give you gardens that would remind you of your travels.”

And it was true. Tris’s had some plants native to Tharios, Daja’s to Namorn. Sandry’s eyes got misty when she looked closer at hers. It smelled just like Rosethorn’s garden at Discipline. 

“Of course, if you don’t have the space, or don’t want to care for them it’s fine—” Briar started, but Sandry cut him off with a hug.

“It’s perfect Briar, I absolutely love it. It’s truly a perfect gift.”

“I’m sure yours is just as nice,” Briar said, passing Sandry’s presents to Daja and Tris.

“No, it’s nothing so special as your garden—”

“I needed a new apron!” Daja exclaimed.

“I never even mentioned my oilskins were worn,” Tris said, turning the cloak over in her hands.

“How’d you know?” Briar held up a pair of gardening gloves. Sandry blushed.

“Tris is right, I never told you my apron was getting old,” Daja said. “How’d you know?”

“You never specifically said it, but you’d each complained about those items. It wasn’t hard to guess.”

“And of course, it fits perfectly,” Tris said.

“It’s your color too, Tris,” Daja replied.

“Blue? I guess it is, isn’t it.”

“Well mine is slightly less personal,” Daja said, looking down. “I didn’t make a unique one for each of you.”

The three others opened up beautiful brass locks and keys. “I made them so they respond only to you. I’m not sure what you’d use them for—”

“A magic lock? This is all I’ve ever needed!” Briar looked thrilled.

“It’s going right on my mage kit,” Sandry said.

“Well, I can’t put mine on my mage’s kit but I have a trunk that could use it,” Tris said. “Well now I feel like mine—”

But Sandry, Daja and Briar were all tearing into the wrapping.

“Oh, from you and Chime!” Sandry said, holding up a golden flame on a string.

“Actually, I’ve taken up glass blowing,” Tris said. “I made these myself. I modeled them after Chime’s flames.”

“You made this all on your own Coppercurls?” Briar was already fastening his green pendant around his neck.

“All on my own. And I have one to match,” Tris took her stormy blue one from under her gown, and helped Daja fasten her amber necklace.

“I love it Tris. It’ll remind me of you,” Sandry said.

“Not like you could forget her. Did you cause that lightning storm last week?” Briar asked. “You almost drowned my vegetables.”

“I didn’t cause it! I just…hurried it along,” Tris said.

Daja laughed. “Can you give the rest of us a warning next time? I left some tools outside, I’m worried their going to rust.”

“You’re the metalsmith, can’t you fix your own tools?” Tris shot back.

Sandry smiled at her family, each with their own way of showing love. She knew they’d go in for dinner soon, but for now she sat back to enjoy the moment of the four of them together.


End file.
